Background Systemic carnitine deficiency may present with apnea, hypotonia, and poor growth. Premature infants often manifest these symptoms and are at risk of developing carnitine deficiency because of immaturity of the biosynthetic pathway, lack of sufficient predelivery transplacental transport, and lack of sufficient exogenous supplementation. Objective This study was undertaken to examine ...

Our study investigated the potential for important in vivo drug-nutrient transport interactions at the lactating mammary gland using the L-carnitine transporter substrates, cefepime and L-carnitine, as proof-of-concept. On d 4 (n = 6/treatment) and d 10 (n = 6/treatment) of lactation, rats were administered cefepime (250 mg/h) or saline by continuous i.v. infusion (4 h). Serum and milk L-carnit...

Carnitine deficiency is reportedly associated with increased pain sensation in diabetes mellitus and fibromyalgia, but the association between serum carnitine concentration and cancer pain has not been fully elucidated. We investigated the incidence of carnitine deficiency in patients with cancer pain, and examined the effect of the patients' demographic and clinical characteristics on pain int...

The barrier function of the human mammary gland collapses if challenged with cationic drugs, causing their accumulation in milk. However, underlying molecular mechanisms are not well understood. To gain insight into the mechanism, we characterized transport of organic cations in the MCF12A human mammary gland epithelial cells, using carnitine and tetraethylammonium (TEA) as representative nutri...

Primary systemic carnitine deficiency is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by a decreased renal reabsorption of carnitine because of mutations of the carnitine transporter OCTN2 gene, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a common clinical feature of homozygotes. Although heterozygotes for OCTN2 mutations are generally healthy with normal cardiac performance, heterozygotes may be at risk for ...

Objective: To evaluate carnitine serum levels as a comorbidity in children with iron deficiency anemia. Patients and Methods: Fifty-four well nourished children (29 boys and 25 girls) with iron deficiency anemia were enrolled. Twenty-five healthy non-anemic ageand sexmatched children were included as a control group. For all anemic children and controls, we performed complete blood cell count, ...

Carnitine has a critical role in energy metabolism. Many of the functions of carnitine are not clearly elucidated and many of the regulatory mechanisms governing carnitine metabolism are ill-defined. Carnitine deficiency can be life threatening but may be resolved with carnitine supplementation. Various groups of individuals in addition to those with the classical carnitine deficiency syndrome ...

CARNITINE IS A CRITICAL COFACTOR in the metabolism of lipids and therefore in the production of cellular energy. L-Carnitine, the active form, plays an important role in oxidizing fatty acids, transporting long chain fatty acids across mitochondrial membrane, and modulating intracellular coenzyme A homeostasis (3). L-Carnitine uptake into cells is mediated primarily by the organic cation/carnit...

Fatty acid metabolism and oxidation capacity in the placenta, which likely affects rate composition of lipid delivered to fetus remains poorly understood. Long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as docosahexaenoic (DHA), are critical for fetal growth brain development. We determined impact maternal obesity on placental oxidation, esterification transport by measuring PhosphatidylCholine (P...